History of Saratoga County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers., Part 38

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 780

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1854 .- John A. Corey, president ; Walter J. Hendrick, Hiram A. Dedrick, Wm. S. Balch, Runion Martin, trus- tees ; Joseph D. Briggs, treasurer ; Chas. H. Hulbert, clerk.

IS55 .- J. A. Corey, president ; W. S. Balch, R. Mar- tin, W. J. Hendrick, R. Wariner, trustees ; C. C. More- house, clerk.

1856 .- John A. Corey, president ; Wm. S. Balch, Wal- ter J. Hendrick, Amos S. Maxwell, E. R. Stevens, P. Il. Greene, trustees ; C. C. Morehouse, clerk.

1857 .- John H. White, president ; Robert Gardner, Amos S. Maxwell, W. J. Hendrick, P. H. Greene, H. H. Martin, trustees ; James H. Huling, clerk.

1858 .- J. II. White, president ; R. Gardner, H. H. Mar- tin, A. S. Maxwell, S. Ainsworth, G. F. White, trustees ; W. L. Putnam, clerk.

1859 .- Peckham H. Greene, president ; Owen T. Sparks, Charles S. Lester, Amos H. Maxwell, George F. White, Seymour Ainsworth, trustees ; Wm. L. Putnam, clerk.

1860 .- P. H. Greene, president ; C. S. Lester, John II. White, Geo. T. White, Wm. B. Gage, Seymour Ainsworth, trustees ; Wm. F. Putnam, clerk.

1861 .- J. H. White, president ; G. F. White, W. B. Gage, J. D. Briggs, C. S. Lester, Amasa Keith, trustees ; J. Gunning, Jr., elerk.

1862 .- Charles S. Lester, president ; Charles S. Lester,

George F. White, Joseph D. Briggs, Amasa Keith, Wil- liam B. Gage, Alexander A. Patterson, trustees ; John Gunning, Jr., clerk.

1863 .- John H. White, president ; George F. White, William B. Gage, Alexander A. Patterson, John II. White, Amasa Keith, William Slocum, trustees; Ferdinand Height, clerk.

1864 .- John S. Leake, president; John R. Putnam, Franklin T. ITill, Silas P. Briggs, Alexander A. Patterson, John W. Gaffney, John HI. Wager, trustees; Lorin B. Putnam, clerk.

1865 .- John S. Leake, president; John R. Putnam, Alexander A. Patterson, John II. Wager, Hiram HI. Martin, Abner D. Wait, Seymour Hartwell, trustees; Lorin B. Putnam, clerk.

1866 .- John H. White, president ; Hiram H. Martin, Abner D. Wait, Seymour Hartwell, William Bennett, James H. Wright, Daniel O. Gorman, trustces; Ferdinand Height, clerk.

1867 .- John H. White, president; William Bennett, James II. Wright, Daniel O. Gorman, James P. Butler, Charles H. Holden, Iliram C. Tefft, trustees ; Ferdinand HIeight, elerk.

1868 .- John H. White, president; James P. Butler, Charles H. Holden, Hiram C. Tefft, Ferdinand W. Fonda, William H. Walton, Bernard McGovern, trustees ; Ferdi- nand Height, clerk.

1869 .- John H. White,* president ; Ferdinand W. Fonda, William H. Walton, Bernard McGovern, James P. Butler, Nathan D. Morey, Michael Walsh, trustees ; Ferdi- nand Height, clerk.

1870 .- James H. Wright, president ; James P. Butler, Nathan D. Morey, Michael Walsh, John P. Alger, Elias HI. Peters, Rhody Delancy, trustees ; William L. Graham, clerk.

1871 .- James H. Wright, president ; John P. Alger, Elias H. Peters, Rhody Delaney, Lorenzo L. Brintnall, Daniel M. Mains, Jerome Pitney, trustees ; Charles H. Tefft, Jr., clerk.

1872 .- Caleb W. Mitchell, president ; Lorenzo L. Brint- nall, Daniel M. Mains, Jerome Pitney, Lewis Ellsworth, George Mingay, William Heaslip, trustees; Patrick Mc- Donald, elerk.

1873 .- Caleb W. Mitchell, president; Lewis Ellsworth, George Mingay, William Heaslip, Lorenzo Brintnall, Daniel M. Mains, John C. Dennin, trustees; Patrick McDonald, clerk.

1874 .- Charles A. Allen, president ; Lorenzo L. Brint- nall, Daniel M. Mains, John C. Dennin, John P. Alger, Gradus D. Smith, Arthur Swanick, trustees; Patrick McDonald, clerk.

1875 .- Charles A. Allen, president ; John P. Alger, Gradus D. Smith, Arthur Swanick, George B. Hinckley, Dewitt C. Hoyt, Michacl Walsh, trustees ; Patrick McDon- ald, clerk.

1876 .- Stephen HI. Richards, president; George B. Hinckley, Dewitt C. Hoyt, Michael Walsh, Lorenzo L.

# John Il. White resigned as president December 24, 1869, and James Il. Wright was appointed to fill the vacancy, January 7, 1870.

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HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Brintnall, Frank D. Wheeler, Jr., Patrick Brennan, trus- tees ; William L. Grahame, clerk.

1877 .- Stephen H. Richards, president ; Lorenzo L. Brintnall, George B. Hinckley, Frank D. Wheeler, Jr., Reuben Merchant, Patrick Brennan, Hiram W. Hays, trustees ; William L. Grahame, clerk.

1878 .- Thomas Noxon, president ; Lorenzo L. Brintnall, George B. Ilinckley, Reuben Merchant, David Rouse, Hiram W. Hays, Daniel Leary, trustees ; William L. Gra- hame, clerk.

IV .- MINERAL SPRINGS.

The mineral springs of Saratoga have long been world- renowned. They occur in the narrow valley of a little stream that takes its rise in the southwestern part of the village, one branch of which runs from a spring of fresh water situate in the rear of the Clarendon Hotel, and the other from springs in the valley which extends through Congress park. In making improvements the two little branches have long since been diverted from their natural channels, and mostly covered up and lost to view. In their natural state, however, they were both beautiful streams of pure water, the westerly branch running over a rocky bed across Broadway, and after dashing over a little cascade near which Congress spring was discovered, it joined its sister stream in Congress street. After the junction of its two branches, the stream continued through the wind- ing valley, first northerly for a mile or more, then easterly to the valley of the Ten springs, and then southerly to the lake. Along in the valley of this stream, within a dis- tance of two miles, are situate nearly all the famous natural mineral springs of Saratoga. Around these springs, stretch- ing along and across this valley, has sprung up the modern village of Saratoga Springs,-a city in fact, but not in name and organization, peerless in its palatial grandeur and fairy-like beauty

The origin of these mineral waters is one of nature's secrets. In the valley in which they occur, two geologic systems of rocks meet and abut against each other. Here the old Laurentian rocks, covered by the rocks of the Pots- dam and calciferous sandstones, end, and the Trenton sys- tem of limestones, covered by the Hudson river slates and shales, begins. In the geologie fault or fissure which runs along the valley between these two systems of rocks, the mineral springs rise to the surface. The springs seem to take their rise in the bird's-eye limestone strata which un- derlies the slate. In sinking wells at the Geyser springs at Ballston Spa and at Round lake, the mineral waters, like those of Saratoga, were, without exception, reached after the drill had passed through the slate and struck the lime- stone. At the Geyser the wells are sunk to the depth of from one hundred and thirty-two to three hundred feet. At Ballston Spa they reach the depth of several hundred feet more, while at Round lake the well was sunk through the slate to the depth of fourteen hundred feet before the lime- stone was reached in which the mineral water was found.

It seems that the valley of the Hudson, at this part of its course, is a deep-sunken basin, in which lies a fossil ocean in whose ancient bed the limestones and slates were deposited in its briny waters. Out of this sunken basin of still briny waters, out of this fossil ocean-bed filled with

rocky strata, rise the mineral springs of Saratoga. The mineral waters course along between the limestone strata at different depths, and therefore possessing different qualities, until they reach the bard barrier of Laurentian rocks in the fissure that extends through the little valley in the village where they occur, and then they rise to the surface, forced upward by the gaseous constituents.

And now the village of Saratoga Springs owes not only its wondrous growth, but its very existence, to the rich mineral fountains that within its boundaries bubble up from the earth's bosom burdened with their sweet mission of healing.

The mineral springs of Saratoga were first brought to the notice of scientific men and physicians by Dr. Consta- ble, of Schenectady, who examined the mineral waters at Saratoga and Ballston in the year 1770, and pronounced them highly medicinal.

In 1783, Dr. Samuel Tenny, a regimental surgeon sta- tioned at Old Saratoga, called the attention of the medical faculty to these waters. Ile addressed a letter upon the subject to Dr. Joshua Fisher, of Boston, which was pub- lished in the Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol. ii. part i., 1793.

Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, LL.D., of New York, said it was one of the remarkable incidents of his life "that in the year 1787 he visited the springs at Saratoga while sur- rounded by the forest and ascertained, experimentally, that the gas extracted from the water was fixed air, with the power to extinguish flame and destroy the life of breathing animals."

But the first scientifie examination of these waters was made by Dr. Valentine Seaman, of New York, an eminent physician, and one of the surgeons of the New York Hos- pital. In 1793 he published a work entitled “ A Disserta- tion on the Mineral Waters of Saratoga." To him very justly belongs the honor of first developing the true charac- ter of these waters by chemical experiment.

In the year 1795, Dr. Vandervoort published the result of his experiment on the Ballston waters.

In the summer of 1817, Dr. John H. Steel published "Some Observations on the Mineral Waters of Saratoga and Ballston," and in 1831 his larger work, entitled " An Analysis of the Mineral Waters of Saratoga and Ballston."

In 1844, Dr. R. L. Allen published the first edition of his work, entitled " A Historical, Chemical, and Therapeu- tieal Analysis of the principal Mineral Waters of Saratoga Springs."

These publications have been followed by many others, too numerous to mention here .*

HIIGH ROCK SPRING.

The longest known, if not the most famous, of the min- eral springs of Saratoga is the High Rock spring. This spring, as has already been seen, was the famous " medi- cine spring" of the Mohawks long before it was visited by white men. This, with the Flat Rock spring, since called the Pavilion, and the Red spring, were for many years the

* See a list of books relating to Saratoga Springs, in Reminiscences of Saratoga and Ballston, page 441.

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157

HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

only springs known to exist at Saratoga. It takes its name from the peculiar rocky concretion through which it rises to the open air. This rocky coneretion seems to have been gradually formed by the spring itself in the course of many centuries. " The material of which this rock is composed," says Henry McGuier, in his concise history of the High Rock spring, " is principally impure lime, and is chiefly derived by the water from the loose earthy materials lying upon the rock out of which it issnes. This material is quite different from anything originally found in the water, and is retained in it by a mechanical instead of a chemical force, and, consequently, upon its coming into contact with the atmosphere, and losing much of its activity, it deposits all those materials which have combined with it in its pass- age from the rocky orifice to the surface, in the form of a stony mass, denominated tufa. This is the origin, and such the substance forming that singular phenomenon known as the ' High Rock.'

" In all the operations of nature everywhere, she has left the evidences of some method by which to determine the successive stages of progressive development and per- fection, in all her varied creations. The geologist finds, in the rocks, nnquestionable evidences of the stately steppings of the creative energy, and by their organie reliquæe or im- bedded petrifactions is enabled to determine the comparative remoteness or nearness of the system he is studying. So, too, the botanist finds in the towering giant of the forest the annular rings of its growth, and he is thereby enabled to trace its history far backward, and perhaps prior to the commencement of his own brief existence. And the palæon- tologist, by comparing one specimen with another, is en- abled to determine the mature from those which are immature ; and so throughout.

" The application of this law, then, to any subject of natural history to which our attention may be called, will enable us to arrive, approximately at least, at the truth, whenever we endeavor to trace backward to the commence- ment of their operations, those causes which have been in- strumental in producing it.

" Taking this law for our guide, then, let us determine, if possible, the age of the High Rock.

" In descending from the surface at this point, seven feet of commingled muck and tufa (rocky matter formed by the water) was passed through, then a stratum or layer of tufa two feet thick, a stratum of muck, and then a stratum of tufa three feet thick.

" In determining the time requisite to deposit the five feet of tufa, I caused a specimen of the tufa to be ground down smooth, and at right angles to the lines of deposit, so as to be enabled to count the lines with accuracy, of annual de- posit,-as the vicissitudes of our climate determine those lines, for when frozen, as in our winter, the water makes no deposit. I found twenty-five such lines embraced within a single inch, and as there are sixty inches in the aggregate, a very simple computation shows that one thousand five hun- dred years were consumed in depositing these layers of tufa alone ; and this tufa, it must be remembered, was deposited from standing water, or with but very little motion, as the tufa occupies a horizontal position.

" Lying upon the stratum of tufa three feet thick, and

in the stratum of muck superimposed upon it, was found a pine-tree, the annular rings of which I counted to the num- ber of one hundred and thirty ; this sum added to the above, and we have the further sum of one thousand six hundred and thirty years. And from the foregoing data I deem it a moderate approximation to claim four hundred years as the requisite time in which to deposit the seven feet of su- perineumbent muck and tufa, which gives the still further sum of two thousand and thirty years.

" The facts which add strength to the foregoing conclu- sions, and lend thrilling interest to this subject, are the evi- dences which are found at this depth of the surface, that this level was once occupied by human beings. Here the extinguished fire marks unmistakably the gathering-place of the family group many centuries ago. And here, too, linger the 'foot-prints' of a long-gone race, as if loth to leave a spot once so cherished, and around which clustered so many pleasing recollections.

" The reader will observe that the above estimate does not include the rock or cone of the spring, but simply the intermediate strata between the cone and the deposits below. To determine the length of time requisite to form the cone or rock of the spring, it became necessary to visit a locality where the water, which is now depositing tufa, has a veloc- ity similar to that which the water must have had from which the rock of the High Rock spring was deposited. Accordingly, resort was had to such a locality, and it was found that five of the annual strata thus deposited occupied the space of one-sixteenth of an inch,-thus requiring eighty years to perfect one inch ; and as the cone of the Iligh Rock is four feet in height, it must have required three thousand eight hundred and forty years to have formed the cone ; and, in the aggregate, five thousand eight hundred and seventy years (some eminent scientists, who have had their attention drawn to this subject, estimate its age at even more than this) must have been consumed in the for- mation of the High Rock spring."

Ownership of High Rock spring .- On Friday, Feb. 22, 1771, the patent of Kayaderosseras was partitioned by ballot, and lot No. 12 of the sixteenth general allotment- on which lot the High Rock spring is situated-by such balloting came into possession of the heirs of Rip Van Dam, who had died in 1745, pending the controversy with the Indians in regard to the patent. They were the first individuals who ever exercised any possessory jurisdiction over this spring. Soon after, Rip Van Dam's executors sold the same to Isaac Low, Jacob Walton, and Anthony Van Dam. Low was attainted for treason by the Legisla- ture of New York, Oct. 1, 1779, and Henry Livingston, upon the sale of Low's portion of the lot, purchased the same for himself and several of his brothers. The prop- erty was again divided in 1793. At this time it was held by Henry Walton, Henry Livingston, and Anthony Van Dam. Walton then purchased Van Dam's portion of the property, and of the part of lot twelve lying to the north of Congress spring Judge Walton became the sole owner.

The High Rock remained the property of the Walton heirs until the year 1826, when Mr. John H. White, a step- son of Dr. Clarke, on behalf of Mrs. Clarke and the heirs, purchased of the executors of Henry Walton the remain-

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HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

ing portion of the IIigh Rock, and they thns became pos- sessed of the entire property.

In 1864, William B. White, who succeeded Dr. Clarke in the control and management of the Congress spring, died, and soon after it passed into other hands, and the necessity for the longer retention of this, to them entirely unproductive property, ceased to exist. In 1865, Messrs. Ainsworth and McCaffrey became the owners of this prodigy of nature, and soon after commenced a series of im- provements. After removing the building which sheltered the spring they set about removing the rock or cone whole, upon accomplishing which, contrary to general expectation, they discovered that the cone had no direct or immediate connection with the rock below, but that the water was supplied by percolation through the intervening soil. They at once determined upon removing the soil quite down to the permanent orifice in the rock below, and by supplying an artificial channel between that point and the surface, to reproduce that much-desired spectacle of the water once again bubbling up and running over the erest of the cone. After passing through about seven feet of commingled muck and tufa, they came upon a layer of tufa abont two feet thick, then a stratum of muck, then another stratum of tufa three feet thick ; through the muck were dissemi- nated the trunks of large trees and pine and other forest leaves in profuse abundance-the concentrie rings of the trunk of one of those trees was counted and there were found one hundred and thirty. Those trees must have lain there for a long period of time before they became covered by the increasing peaty deposit, for their upper surfaces were worn smooth by the moccasins of the Indians, as they formed a convenient passage-way for them to the spring; and thus proceeding through alternating strata of muek and tufa down to the desired point, where an opening was reached which furnished a volume of water vastly superior to anything ever before witnessed at this place, and so great, even, as to affect materially for the time the level of the springs in the neighborhood, some of them to the extent of quite two feet; thus exhibiting the fact that this is the main opening of all our mineral waters at this point. A tube was then furnished, placed in position, and properly secured, in which the mineral water rose several feet above the original surface of the rock or conc. Preparations were immediately made for replacing the rock back upon the vein of water, and after considerable labor and trial that purpose was accomplished, and water welled up through the orifice and overflowed the rock, as now seen by the visitors at this spring. After the improvements were finished, on the 23d day of August, a celebration was had at the rock. A large meeting assembled over which the venerable Chan- cellor Walworth presided, which was addressed by the chan- cellor and William L. Stone.

In the course of his remarks the chancellor said :

" In the fall of 1777, after the surrender of General Bur- goyne, and while our troops lay at Palmnertown, about six miles north of here, several of our officers visited this spring, which had then attained some celebrity, as one of those offi- cers has since told me. And it had for a long time before that been known to the Indians as ' The Great Medicine Spring.'

" When the mineral waters of this ancient spring, which are this day (by artificial means) made again to flow over the top of this rock, ceased to flow over, is not known to any one now living. But I will give you the information I have on that subject. I first visited Saratoga in the summer of 1812, fifty-four years since. The water in this rock was then about as much below the top of the rock as it was when I came here to reside, eleven years afterwards, I think eigh- teen or twenty inches, or perhaps a little more. The late Major-General Mooers, of Plattsburg, who was an officer of Colonel Hazen's regiment at the taking of General Bur- goyne's army, was at my house, and visited this spring with me, a few years previous to his death. He then told me that he, with other officers, came from Palmertown to this spring, in October, 1777. And he said the height of water in the rock was then about the same as it was when we visited it, sixty years thereafter.

" About forty-one years since, while holding a circuit court on the northern frontier of this State, I stayed over the Sabbath with a friend who resided a few miles from the Indian settlement at St. Regis ; and we attended the relig- ious services at the Indian church in their village. Between the morning and afternoon services at the church, we went to the house of one of their chiefs, named Loran Tarbel, with whom I had become acquainted during my residence at Plattsburg. He was then between eighty and ninety years of age, but was in health and in perfect mental vigor. Knowing that some of the St. Regis Indians had once resided on the banks of the Mohawk river, I was anxious to learn what this aged chief knew in relation to this spring. But as he had a very imperfect knowledge of the English language, I spoke to his son, Captain Tarbel, who had an English education. I described the High Rock spring, and asked him if he knew anything about it. He said he had never been there, and had never heard of it. I then requested him to describe it to his father, and to ask him if he had ever heard of it. The moment he did so, the early recollections of the venerable chief were aroused ; and indicating by the motions of his hand the shape of the top of the rock, he said, ' Yes, Great Medi- cine Spring.'

" He then told me, through his son as interpreter, that he was born at Caughnawaga, on the Mohawk ; and that he em- igrated with his father to Canada several years before the Revolutionary war. That when he was a boy, the Indians living on the Mohawk were in the habit of visiting this spring and using its waters as a medicine. That when he was about fifteen years old, and shortly before he emigrated to Canada, he came here with his father to see the great Medicine spring. I then asked him if the water flowed over the top of the rock at that time. He said it did not ; that they had to get the medicine water by dipping it out of the rock with a cup or gourd shell. That there was then a tradition among the Indians that the medicine water had formerly flowed out of the rock at its top, but that it had ceased to do so for a long time before he came here with his father. He then gave me the Indian tradition as to the canse of the cessation of the overflowing of the water. The par- tienlars of this tradition I cannot repeat, in his words, in the presence of this audience ; but the substance of it

James Prentice Butler was born at Moriah, Essex Co., N. Y., Sept. 20, 1816. His pater- nal ancestors were Scotch-Irish, and settled originally at Martha's Vineyard, whence they removed to Woodbury, Conn. His great- great grandfather, Jonathan Butler, was a sea captain. His great grandfather, Malachi Butler, settled at Woodbury, Coon., carly in the seventeenth century, whence the various branches of the family emigrated. He bad sons, Zephaniah, Benjamin, Silas, and Solo- mon, the latter being the grandfather of the subject of this sketch.

Captain Zephaniah Butler was the grand- father of Major-General Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, and was a soldier under General Wolfe at the taking of Quebec. Ile settled at Nottingham, N. II., in 1759. Solo- mon Butler, grandfather of Captain James P. Butler, settled at Addison, Vt., soon after the termination of the Revolutionary war, in which he served as lieutenant, and fought at the battle of White Plains. ITe received his pay in Continental money so depreciated that, on his way home, he paid sixty dollars for a single meal. Captain Batler has now several bills, a remnant of the eurrency, which he values above par as a souvenir of the gallant services of his ancestor in the War of the Revolution.

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History of Saratoga County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers., Part 38

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894 Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign Number of Pages: 780

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 780